The major fire started at Sunny Corner near the Village of Hall. It was first detected by the fire towers at 2.59 pm. Fanned by winds gusting to 70 kilometers per hour, the fire burnt fiercely in a northward direction and quickly grew in size spreading at an estimated 8 kilometers per hour at its worst.
At around 1540 hours the fire approached the Gundaroo Road, around 4 kilometers from the source.
Around 1620 hours the fire had reached Gungaderra Homestead (about 7 kilometers from the source), the fire is running in fully_cured Phalaris grassland. The fire behaviour was erratic with flame bursts of 4 to 10 metres and huge fire whirls.
The town of Sutton (N.S.W.) was evacuated about 5pm, when the fire reached the tops of nearby hills and began moving towards the town on a one-kilometer wide front.
A major wind change to the south-west occurred at about 1730 hours, the fire broke out along the entire northern flank and burnt strongly to the north east.
By the time the fire had been controlled, at about 4 am the next day, a total of 165 square kilometers (16 500 hectares) of land had been burnt in the A.C.T.(4 025 hectares) and New South Wales (12 475 hectares).
The fire caused losses in the A.C.T. of two cottages, three sheds, machinery and stored fodder, about 5000 sheep, six horses and fencing worth $200 000. The fire was caused by a drop-out fuse from a high tension powerline.
On the same day there were other major outbreaks in the A.C.T. at Mount Painter, Tuggeranong, near Kambah Pool and at Stirling where an A.C.T. Fire Brigade Tanker was burnt out.
Sources of information:
A.C.T. Bush Fire Council Annual Report
'The Canberra Times' 14 February 1979